Voltage regulator



March 22, 1932. A JQFF l 1,850,587

VOLTAGE REGULATOR Filed July 2, 1927 Patented Mar.v 22, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ABRAHAM J' OFF, 0F LENIN GRAD, RUSSIA1 ASSIGNOR TO INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH COM- PANY, F CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATON 0F MASSACHUSETTS VOLTAGE REGULATOR Y Application led J'uly 2, 1927. Serial No. 203,021.

This invention relates generally to means for obtaining a constant voltage from an electric circuit subject to voltage fluctuations and more particularly to a current by-pass for obtaining constant voltage. The device also has application as a regulator to protect against over-voltage on a power circuit and to protect low-voltage lines upon crossing high-voltage.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a simple, compact and effective device for obtaining a constant voltage trom a circuit whose voltage is subject to fluctuations. Another object is to devise a regulator for protecting low-voltage lines against over-voltage and accidental crossing with high-voltage mains. A further object is to provide a regulator which requires no evacuated enclosure or gas and has such characteristics that will permit it to function to maintain a substantially constant voltage at its terminals irrespective of material variations in applied potential.

The invention consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangement of parts as eXempliiied in the structure hereinafter described and shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. l shows the application of my device for the purpose of smoothing out voltage ripples; and

Fig. 2 indicates its characteristic curve.

The device comprises a thin dielectric or poorly conducting substance 1 interposed between two metallic electrodes 2 2. The

substance may be of any suitable material having low specific conductivity and of requisite thickness, but I prefer to employ a Iilm of linseed oil baked to form a hard adherent layer or sheet of dimension ranging between 0.2 and 5 mu (thousandths of a millimeter).

As illustrated in Fig. 2, the characteristic curve of a device of this kind rises at a gradually increasing rate and ultimately approaches vertical. In the nearly vertical portion of the curve a small increase of potential (lv) produces a large increase of current (z'). By connecting the device in shunt between the load and a series resistance 4, variations in current through the shunt rejsult from pulsations in potential, thereby 4producing variations in potential drop in the resistance which maintain the voltage across the'load substantially constant, when operating inthe steep portion of the curve.

When employing'a film such as above described, the constant component of the voltage, whether derived from a separate direct current source or fromv the pulsating source to be regulated or both, should be or" the order of Vone thousand to several thousand volts, but this component may be varied by altering the composition and thickness of the dielectric layer.

Various ways of forming the thin films of dielectric or poorly conducting material are described in my copending applications, Serial No. 65,262, filed October 28, 1925; Serial Nos. 109,213 andV 109,214, filed May 15,I 1926, which are incorporated herein by rererence.

l claim:

l. lVave transmission apparatus comprising a load circuit containing a resistance, and a branch intermediate the resistance and load containing two electrodes separated by a layerk between .2 and 5 mu of low specific conductivity having a current-voltage characteristic which curves upwardly with a portion approaching the vertical and means for impressing upon said circuit a current having a unilateral component with voltage pulsations, the unilateral component being suiiicient to localize the pulsations in said portion of the curve, whereby the potential across the load is approximately constant notwithstanding said pulsations.

2. A wave suppressing network supplied with waves of varying potential comprising a pair of conductors, a member in shunt for by-passing current undulations, said member including a layer between .2 and 5 mu of low and variable conductivity under electrical stress and having a specic conductivity of magnitude dependent on the variations of applied voltage.

3. A wave suppressing network supplied with waves of varying potential comprising a pair of conductors, a member in shunt for by passing current undulations, said member i including a layer between .2 and 5 mu of low the vertical, f

and variable conductivity under electrical stress and having a specic conductivity of magnitude dependent on the variations Vof applied voltage, said member containing hardened linseed oil.

Vet. A wave suppressing network supplied with waves of varying potential comprising a pairiof conductors, a member in shunt for by-passing current undulations, saidmember including-a layer between .2 and 5 mu of lowV and variable conductivity, and means for electrically biasing thev member such 'that the' I Y voltage drop across the device remains sub-r stantially constant.

.5.. Adevice for ,suppressingY variations in Y voltage,comprising; a llayer of the order` of between .2 ,and 5,mu `Ofilow and variable Y 1 conductivity under electricalstress, and having pendent on the variationsof voltage applied to said layer, .said device beingvadapted to be connected; in awave suppressing network.

v 6. In a wave suppressing network supplied withwaves of varying potential, a member Afor by-passing current undulations, said member includingV a layer of the order of between .2 and muof low specic conductivity having a current voltage characteristic which curvesupwardly with a portion approaching I"LA, circuit discharge device for smoothing `volta/ges and the like, comprising a'pair of oppositely-disposed electrodes of opposite e polarity, and a spacingelement bridging the opposed electrodes and providing a discharge the current between said electrodes, y

path for said spacing element having interposed in the discharge patha layer'of a thickness of .2 to 5 mu, and a conductivity which Visrelativ'ely high .for voltages below a predetermined Y voltage range but decreasing with voltage in- ,creaseA above said range. Y

" Signed by me at Cambridge, Massachug lsetts, this 7th day of'June, 1927 Y i .f l j ABRAHAM TOFFE/v a specific cond'uctivityof magnitude de- 

